CHAPTER FIVE: Friends

The sign was hand-painted and illuminated by two hanging lanterns on either side. It read:

Mimis' Ice Cream Mochi!

Sasuke turned back to the child holding onto his hand in a vice-grip. There was no doubt where his eyes were staring.

Sasuke had never noticed that particular establishment before—most likely because he didn't care for ice cream and had no reason to notice a place that served it. But Nori was enthralled. This was most likely the reason Sakura had wanted them to go a certain way home. Sasuke was grateful that she had finally decided to give him a hint towards the thing Nori liked, though why she couldn't have just told him he didn't know.

"Do you want some ice cream?" Sasuke asked gently. He'd never seen Nori act the way he was; it was no wonder everyone used this to sway him.

"Mochi," the child replied, nodding. Sasuke had never heard of mochi and ice cream together but it didn't matter. They made their way over to front of the shop. Nori was having a hard time keeping still, his hand practically vibrating in Sasuke's as they entered the building. Sasuke couldn't deny that there was something adorable about Nori's reactions.

The shop was very small, quaint. It must have been a few years old but the paint job inside was bubbly and cute with no signs of wear on any walls. It had no room for sitting inside, just enough to stand and order at the counter. The register was at one end and two older women were behind the counter ready to take orders. As soon as he and Nori walked in they both smiled wide and waved at the Hokage's young son.

"Look Mimi, it's our favorite customer!" The woman on the left said to her companion. The other woman responded quickly, and just as cheerfully,

"Oh, Mimi, I never get tired of seeing our Nori. Back again so soon, little sun?"

Sasuke smiled at the nickname, and let go of Nori's hand so he could race up to the glass and press his hands against it, bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"Mimi!" Nori piped at the first woman and then turned to the other and repeated, "Mimi!"

Sasuke was beginning to suspect the women were both named Mimi, which would explain the odd typo on the sign. One was tall and had short grey hair and the other was short and round, with long purple hair in a bun on top of her head. They clearly knew Nori very well, which didn't surprise Sasuke much. If Nori visited Mimis' Mochi anywhere near as often as Naruto did Ichiraku then the two old ladies may as well be family. He seemed almost as excited to see them as he was about his treat.

The second Mimi with the purple bun glanced up and noticed Sasuke, failing to hide the surprise on her face as she did. She elbowed the first Mimi who made the same expression when she looked up at Sasuke. They smiled at the same time.

"And you've brought someone new today, haven't you, little sun? Who is your friend?"

Sasuke was expected the stuttered, mumbling answer Nori usually gave whenever he was around Sasuke and was taken completely by surprise when Nori answered easily,

"That's Sasuke. He's a strong ninja and he's watching me because Dad is out of town and Sakura is busy and Iruka is busy and even Uncle Neji is busy."

Sasuke blinked, staring down at the child in front of him to make sure he hadn't lost the real Nori and this was some strange replacement who somehow wasn't afraid of talking in front of him.

"Well we know what mochi you want, little sun," the first Mimi grinned, "but what flavor does your new friend want?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to decline the offer but Nori surprised him again, turning around and settling his white eyes on Sasuke, asking clearly,

"What favor do you want? My favorite is geen tea but they have mango and chocolate and cookie ceam and bean and stawberry, too."

He stared at Sasuke expectantly, but Sasuke was so caught up in the fact that Nori was finally talking to him he had barely paid any attention. His chest felt tight and he blinked a few times before finally gathering himself enough to answer,

"…Green tea is fine…"

Both Mimi's smiled and moved at the same time, reaching into some coolers they had behind the counter and pulling out two green balls, just big enough to fit into Nori's small palms. Sasuke took his with a small bow in thanks to the taller Mimi who had given it to him. He started to pull out his wallet but the second Mimi stopped him quickly.

"No, no! Our Hokage's little sun always comes to our shop no charge. Please come again, Uchiha-san."

Nori was already waving goodbye and heading out the door when Sasuke noticed and followed him out. He was still trying to work out what had just happened. All through dinner Nori wouldn't say a word and yet in the mochi shop he'd spoken like it was no big deal. Had Sasuke really been panicking all this time for nothing?

He stared at the back of Nori's blond head as the shop door closed behind him. The boy was walking and happily eating his treat. It took Sasuke a lot longer than it should have to notice how cold his hand was. He looked down and remembered the mochi ice cream treat he'd been surprised into getting. He carefully took a small bite out of the side, pulling on the stretchy mochi layer and biting off a bit of the green tea ice cream on the inside. It tasted all right, but Sasuke wasn't nearly as interested in it as he was in the child walking in front of him. He wondered if Nori had only spoken so easily because he was excited to be getting his favorite food or if he would keep talking to Sasuke now that they were back on the road and it was only them again.

He watched as Nori quickly finished off the last of his mochi and licked his fingers clean of the sticky paste and ice cream. Once he was finished he turned back to Sasuke, eyes widened when he noticed how little of the ice cream Sasuke had eaten.

"You didn't finish yours!" he said, pointing, voice high and clear like a bird.

It still took Sasuke some time to believe it was really Nori who was pointing at him, but then he looked closer and saw the blush tinting the boys cheeks and the way his other hand was pulling on the bottom of his jacket absentmindedly. He smiled faintly and motioned to a nearby bench they were passing.

"You can have the rest and we can sit here while you finish so you don't have to walk and eat at the same time."

Nori's eyes widened as Sasuke handed him the snack—he looked as though he'd never gotten a better gift in the whole world. The bench was just a tad too high for Nori and Sasuke had to help him onto it. The black cat doll Sasuke had given him was settled in the child's lap as he ate the rest of Sasuke's mochi. Sasuke sat down beside him and took the time to watch the joyous expressions that crossed over the boy's face as he ate. He had never seen him look so happy.

"Why didn't you eat it?" Nori asked between bites, surprising Sasuke once again. He still wasn't expecting the sudden shift. He really liked hearing Nori's voice.

"I don't really like sweets," he answered truthfully. Nori frowned and took another bite. Once he had chewed it he asked,

"What do you like?"

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things and I don't have many things that I like."

"…I like fighting. And reading, sometimes."

The answer seemed to please the boy. He grinned and licked his fingers—Sasuke couldn't believe he ate the whole mochi that quickly.

"Dad likes fighting too!" he said. "Him and Uncle Neji fight sometimes."

Sasuke frowned but tried not to let Nori see. Something bothered him about the idea of Naruto and Neji sparring. He and Naruto used to spar and bicker and wrestle so often he felt like—

He isn't yours, idiot. He can spar with whomever he wants. The thoughts came without provocation, but it was true anyway. You weren't around—he was bound to find someone new to fight with.

"You know," he said slowly, capturing Nori's attention easily, "Your Dad and I used to fight a lot."

"Really?" he asked, face scrunched up like he was trying to remember it. "When?"

"It was…" A long time ago, in a different life when things were still good, "…before you were born."

"Oh," the boy replied, fidgeting with the bottom of his jacket. It was starting to get loose threads hanging off; Hinata probably would have sewn it back to brand-new herself. She was surely that kind of wife.

Nori seemed to be thinking something over very hard. He glanced at Sasuke and then away several times, suddenly shy again. Finally he asked quietly,

"You and my Dad were best fends?"

Sasuke's heart jumped to his throat.

"What makes you say that?"

Nori shrugged, staring at the ground. He was quiet for a long time, so long Sasuke wondered if he should start them on their way home, but he waited instead because it seemed to him that Nori had something more to say. Finally the boy exhaled and curled his shoulders up around his ears, muttering low,

"Momma said you were best fends a long time ago."

Sasuke's heart stopped. It was bad enough that he'd made Nori think about his dead mother, but the idea that she had talked about him to Nori before she'd died—that she had made sure to tell him that Sasuke and his father had been best friends. It was more than Sasuke could stand. No matter how he tried he couldn't bring himself to hate Hinata Hyuga: and that only made everything so much worse.

He sighed deeply and stared back towards the mochi shop.

"She was right. We were best friends."

Best friends and nothing more, because he fell in love with her and not me—and I can't even blame him.

They made their way back to Sasuke's apartment, Nori chatting the whole way. It was surreal, like something out of someone else's life. He kept wanting to ask Nori what had changed—why he had suddenly decided to start talking around Sasuke—but he didn't want to push his luck. He was curious, but he was more content to stay in the comfortable zone he was in now.

He made a mental note to take Nori for mochi any time he was with him. Some strange part of him he had never noticed before hoped very much that he would be spending more time with the child.

Nori was delightful. Though his voice was softer he spoke with passion. His thoughts were scattered and jumbled but the ideas were clear and well thought-out. He didn't try to use words he didn't understand, but he understood many things that surprised Sasuke. He was still easily distracted, as Sakura had said, but he came back to himself quickly enough, even if Sasuke just murmured his name very softly. He would blush and pull at his jacket but continued with what he'd been saying before he got distracted in the first place.

It was expected, but Nori was very much not sleepy when they arrived at Sasuke's apartment around 7 in the evening. Certainly he looked tired, as he always did whenever Sasuke saw him, but he had a stubborn streak he must have inherited from his father that made him pout and shake his head when Sasuke asked him if he was ready for bed.

The cat was waiting for them as soon as they walked through the door.

"Muchi!" Nori chimed, and the cat replied with a long meow.

Sasuke frowned. He had sworn he shut his window before he left; how had the cat possibly gotten in?

"Do you want to feed him?" he asked, holding out the bag of cat food in question. Nori's expression lit up and he nodded—the image reminded him very much of Naruto. He let the boy pour the food into the small bowl he'd set aside for the intrusive animal. He poured a good deal more than Sasuke usually gave but he didn't say anything. As the cat ate the food Nori carefully pet gentle lines down his back; the stuffed cat Sasuke had given him was clutched in his other hand.

The cat flinched when Nori pet somewhere on it's left leg and Sasuke frowned.

"Tch," he exclaimed as Nori looked up at him curiously. "Another wound."

Every time the cat came by he had another one. Some were worse than others; the worst was probably the time he came in and a whole chunk of his ear was missing. The cat didn't even seem to notice it but the bleeding had bothered Sasuke enough that he held the cat down and carefully washed and dried the wound so it healed more cleanly. He kept a special clothe just for washing the cat's wounds and he stepped into the kitchen to retrieve it, coming back and motioning for Nori to hold the beast still as he patted the sensitive spot on its leg. When he pulled the cloth back there wasn't any blood, but some dirt came off and it was clear the wound was uncomfortable. Nori was staring intently at the cat, eyebrows furrowed in worried concentration.

"He gets into a lot of fights but he never tarts them."

"Oh really?" Sasuke asked, smiling faintly at the intensity with which Nori was watching as Sasuke tended to the injury.

The young boy nodded seriously.

"He's potecting the other cats. Like Dad does."

"Is he the cat Hokage?"

Another serious nod and Sasuke couldn't help but think that Nori was unfairly cute. When he and Naruto were together it was almost too much. Sasuke finished cleaning the wound but the cat was settled comfortably in Nori's lap and didn't seem to want to move.

"He uses his tail to fight! Like a whip!" Nori made whip motions with Muchi's long black tail. The cat didn't bat an eye.

"If he's the… catkage—" Sasuke couldn't believe he had just said that, "—shouldn't he be off leading the cat village? What is he doing lying around my house?"

"He likes you," Nori replied with an easy shrug, blissfully unaware of how the simple statement sent Sasuke's heart racing.

He means the cat, not Naruto, he told himself. And yet he couldn't help but feel the warm flame of hope burning steady in his chest.

It was the first time a child had come to like Sasuke and he was glad somehow that it was Naruto's son. It made him feel closer to Naruto because Nori was a part of Naruto and always would be.

His face fell to a scowl. Part of her, too, he thought. And always will be.

He saw the cat—Muchi—yawn from the corner of his eye and half a second later Nori was mimicking him, opening his mouth wide in a drawn-out yawn. His eyes and shoulders were drooping but Sasuke could tell he was still determined to stay awake. It seemed that though his body wanted and needed the sleep, Nori was the one deciding to stay up.

"Are you sure you aren't ready for bed?" he asked.

Nori shook his head, eyes widening. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and repeated,

"Are you sure?"

Nori's second headshake was interrupted by another sudden yawn. Sasuke grinned at the blush and way Nori looked shyly away, avoiding his gaze.

"Why don't you want to sleep?"

He wasn't sure the child was going to reply at first, he had buried his face in Muchi's fur with his determination to avoid Sasuke's knowing smile. But after a moment of quiet he mumbled through the fuzz,

"My fends keep me up."

"Your friends?" Sasuke frowned. Had he heard Nori say something about his friends before?

Big white eyes looked up at him, confused.

"You know," he replied, voice tiny and uncertain. He seemed nervous, pulling on the bottom of his jacket and hugging Muchi tight to his chest. He seemed more like the Nori Sasuke knew, the one who avoided his gaze and wouldn't say a thing to him.

"I know your friends?" Sasuke asked, trying not to make the blond more nervous than he was. Nori nodded.

In a second it clicked.

The beasts: they were still in Nori's head. No wonder he was having trouble sleeping.

He activated his sharingan and Nori gasped.

"Scary eyes!" he whispered and Sasuke flinched.

"Sorry…" he muttered, looking down. He didn't want to scare Nori into disliking him again.

"No!" Nori exclaimed, and Sasuke glanced up to see Nori's very serious face, eyebrows furrowed as he stared into Sasuke's red eyes. "Scary eyes are cool!"

"Cool?" Sasuke huffed, relieved.

"Yeah! Nobody has eyes like you!"

Well, that's true…

"May I?" He asked, to be polite. He couldn't get Nori's permission to go inside his head the last time but he felt bad forcing his way in. It felt like the old days, when he didn't care what he did or how it hurt other people.

Nori seemed to understand what he was asking and he nodded and closed his eyes. Sasuke smiled.

"You have to open your eyes," he said gently, and Nori blushed and opened them. In the next moment he was inside Nori's head again, with child standing beside him this time as the beasts around them all stared.

He glared at them—angry that they were causing Nori's insomnia—then felt a warm hand slide into his. He looked down in surprise to find Nori staring around him and his hand clasped lightly in Sasuke's.

"Uchiha again? Well I'll be damned!" It was the one tail speaking, the same beast that had insisted on killing whoever harmed Naruto's son, Sasuke remembered. Also the same monster that had been sealed inside Gaara and was responsible for turning him into the murderer he'd been in their chunin exams. Sasuke couldn't imagine what having a creature like him inside a child's mind would do.

"What have I said about cursing in front of Nori?" The six-tails admonished, shaking it's strangely gelatinous head.

"What is that red-eyed psycho doing here anyway?" the four-tails asked, leaning in and inspecting Sasuke closely.

"He's my fend!" Nori answered, calling up loudly to the figures around them. "Don't be mean!"

"I thought we were your friends, Aonori," the three-tails joked in a voice similar to Nori's, soft and small.

"You are my fends, Iso! But Sasuke is too!"

Nori had said Sasuke's name aloud in the mochi shop but Sasuke hadn't been paying enough attention that time to notice how he'd pronounced it. He still wasn't used to hearing Nori's voice and hearing Nori say his name in his chipper little chirp was undeniably cute. He said it very carefully, enunciating the "ke" more firmly, like it was something he'd had to practice to get right.

"Sasuke," Nori said, as if on cue, and Sasuke turned to look at him expectantly. The boy smiled up at him and, once he knew he had the man's attention, continued, "these are my fends.

"Shu," he motioned to the one tail, who sneered in reply.

"Mata," the two tail, who bowed its head gracefully.

"Iso," the three tail, who nodded.

"Go," the four tail, still staring at Sasuke suspiciously.

"Ko," the five tail seemed to grin kindly at Nori.

"Ken," the six tail made no move.

"Cho," the seven tail nodded it's horned head vigorously

"Gyu," the eight tail tilted it's head at Sasuke, and Sasuke remembered suddenly the time he'd been sent to capture said beast. He hoped Nori never found out about that.

"Ku," he said, a little out of breath as he'd finally gotten to the ninth beast, the fox, who leered at Sasuke like he knew something Sasuke didn't. It wasn't an expression Sasuke liked to see very often.

"You gave them nicknames," he realized, looking back down at Nori. The boy nodded, grinning. He was certainly his father's son.

"I didn't know they were here afore. And I was scared of them until you showed me that they weren't scary."

"I did?" Sasuke asked. He didn't remember anything like that. He'd just come in and yelled at them all for letting their powers get so out of control.

Nori nodded.

"Now they're my fends! But they talk a lot sometimes. It's hard to ignore them."

"Is that why you haven't been sleeping?" Sasuke asked harshly, already preparing to use whatever power he had to shut down the beasts communication with the boy inside his head. But Nori's eyes widened and before he could answer the fox answered for him,

"We're not the ones keeping him up. Kid, did you tell the Uchiha we were keeping you awake?"

Nori looked away shyly, apparently caught in his lie. The fox shook his head and Sasuke frowned up at him.

"Why hasn't he been sleeping then? Whatever it is, it has to stop. He's exhausted. It's not good for him."

"No shit," the fox snarled. "We're with him all the time—we know it's not good. It's the nightmares, though. He can't get into a deep enough sleep without the nightmares waking him up again."

Sasuke understood then. Kakashi had confirmed his initials fears and now the beasts were telling him what he'd expected all along: Nori couldn't stop thinking about his mother's death. It wasn't as though Sasuke didn't understand. He'd relived his own parent's death in his mind more times than he could count. He'd had trouble sleeping, too, just after the massacre. In the end some medic nin had drugged him for his own good and he slept two days through. After that he trained himself to sleep at least halfway through the night. The nightmares never really went away; he just got better at ignoring them.

He didn't want the same thing for Nori. There had to be a better way.

"Cant any of you do something?"

"We've tried," the eight tails replied flatly. Sasuke sighed.

"You could help, you know," the nine tailed fox grinned his way. He shifted his gaze into those big, sharp eyes, hating how much the fox seemed to know about him.

"Sasuke, it's okay, I'm not sleepy," Nori said, something scared and panicked in his eyes. He didn't want to sleep—he knew that sleeping meant dreams. He was really very small, just on the edge of being a kid. He was still practically a toddler. Children need sleep. Everyone needs sleep.

"I know you're sleepy, Nori," Sasuke explained, leaning down so he could talk to the child eye to eye.

"I'm not! I don't wanna sleep!" He was on the verge of a real panic, his lower lip trembling and his face turning red.

"What if I told you I could help you sleep with no dreams?"

The boy was silent for a moment and then came the whisper soft question of,

"Really? No—no m—" he stopped himself, frightened, unable to go on. Though he didn't seem to realize he was doing it, Nori was calling up images in his mind, and since Sasuke was there as well he was getting glimpses. Rain and hands holding onto him and her voice calling his name and mud, so much mud, all over everything and everyone, in her hair and—

"No bad dreams," Sasuke promised, calling the child back from his own memories. Sasuke couldn't even bring himself to see those images and he had probably seen worse.

He cupped one hand gently to the side of Nori's face. His skin was soft and pale; cold, like the memories had sent him back there, back to that place. Sasuke would do whatever he could to help Nori escape those memories.

"Look into my eyes, okay?" Sasuke muttered gently, aware of the array of beasts still surrounding them and watching everything he did. He knew for a fact they would do anything to protect Nori, but he was confident that he would not be the one putting Nori in danger.

"Your scary eyes?" Nori asked.

"Yes," Sasuke smiled faintly, "my scary eyes."

Nori did as he was told and Sasuke concentrated enough chakra for a simple sleep genjutsu. Nori was out like a light. He would have no bad dreams this time.

As soon as he was sure Nori was asleep he turned to the beasts.

"I have some questions," he stated flatly.

The fox laughed the dark, chuckling laugh he always had. It was clear he was the leader of the chakra monsters.

"How long have you been inside his head?"

"We each gave him a part of our chakra when he turned one."

"Why?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask.

"We wanted to protect him," the two tails replied.

The others nodded their agreement.

"Does Naruto know about this?" Sasuke asked the question he was most curious about. Surely Naruto, the caretaker of all the beasts, knew that his son was carrying their chakras. It had probably been his idea; of course a father would do whatever he could to protect his son.

But when he looked around at the faces of the monsters the answer seemed pretty clear: Naruto had no idea.

"He doesn't know?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The fox wasn't looking so certain anymore, avoiding Sasuke's gaze and scratching one of his ears with a large clawed hand.

"We—we never told him," one of the beasts said, Sasuke didn't even know which.

"Don't you think he should know?"

"Yes, he should," the fox agreed. "You should tell him."

Sasuke exhaled deeply, uncomfortable under the gazes of all the beasts. More than just the fox were leering at him slyly now and he didn't appreciate it. Something about this felt wrong, settled badly in his gut.

"Nori does not belong to me," he said through clenched teeth. "This is not my problem."

"You didn't feel that way about his sleeping habits."

"It's different," he grunted, already readying himself to get out of the child's head. He would leave the beasts their free rein for now, but if it seemed like they were doing more harm than good to Nori he would find a way to seal them off more fully—back to whatever way they'd been before Nori's capture and panic released them.

It was different, though. He wasn't heartless, couldn't ignore the child when his physical and mental health were in question, but that didn't mean he was a part of Nori's life. He was just watching the child as a favor for Naruto until he came back, that was all.

That was all he would ever be.

"Tell Naruto yourselves."

Sasuke was sure to wake before Nori this time. He was sure it wasn't good babysitter etiquette to leave a child unsupervised in order to sleep in a few extra minutes. He already had a modest breakfast of oatmeal and fruit ready when Nori appeared in the kitchen doorway rubbing his eyes and yawning wide.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked. He was confident that the genjutsu worked but it couldn't hurt to ask anyway.

"Yeah!" Nori nodded several times, clambering into a chair to sit at the kitchen table.

"No bad dreams?"

Nori shook his head.

"I had a dream about Muchi! He was a—a, ummm… a fighter cat? With amor! He beat the bad rats. He was protecting me."

"Really?" Sasuke smiled. He already knew the contents of Nori's dream; he'd made sure to add it as part of the genjutsu. It was nice that Nori seemed to like it.

They ate breakfast in relative silence. Sasuke still had a lot to learn about Nori and children in general. Nori tasted his oatmeal and made a face. Sasuke took that as a hint and added a spoonful of brown sugar to make it more palatable for a child with picky tastes. He couldn't peel his orange on his own and shyly asked Sasuke to help him. Even though he ate slowly and more carefully than Sasuke would have expected a child his age to eat he still wound up with a messy, juicy-covered face.

Sasuke found it oddly endearing. He couldn't help but imagine Naruto cleaning up his son after breakfast and his chest felt tight from the very idea. There was something about the idea of Naruto in a fathering role that affected Sasuke every time he considered it. He wasn't sure where those feelings came from but he didn't appreciate them. It only made everything that much harder.

By the time he had cleaned up breakfast and gotten Nori washed and dressed it was almost noon. He entered the living room to find Nori entertaining the cat with a piece of string.

"Your dad should be back in the village soon. I'm sure he will want to come pick you up first thing."

Sasuke was somewhat grateful the time had passed so quickly. He felt like he was just about running out of things to do with an untalkative three and a half year old.

He thought about the story Nori had told him the night before about the cat Hokage. He'd been surprised; it never occurred to him that children had imaginations so broad. It seemed like most of them just wanted to eat and run around screaming all the time. It was especially surprising given that Nori was Naruto's child. Sasuke kept waiting for him to turn into the same kind of troublemaker his father was but it didn't seem likely. Nori was mild-tempered and sweet—probably more than even Sasuke was at his age.

Then again, Nori was an only child and had two loving parents for most of his life. There was no need for him to try so hard to get attention; he probably always had more than enough to go around.

"Oi, Sasuke! Nori!" Sasuke heard Naruto's voice from the front door. He hadn't bothered to knock; it was surprising to think about how close all of team seven was that none of them even bother to knock anymore, especially after everything that'd happened between them.

"Dad!" Nori cheered, hopping down from the couch to rush to the door. Sasuke smiled involuntarily, holding back a moment longer before following after the boy, hoping he would miss their initial reunion—it was sure to be painfully heartwarming.

Still when he peeked around the corner the sight that met him made his chest ache for something he never thought he wanted. Naruto had Nori balanced easily on his hip, grinning like the idiot he was and staring at his son like he was the reason the world turned. When he realized Sasuke was there he looked up with that same grin.

Sasuke couldn't believe it had been so long since he'd seen that expression directed towards him. How had he ever given it up? It seemed impossible now.

His memory focused, reminding him of the pain he'd been in when Naruto had announced he was marrying Hinata. Reminding him of the sudden desolation the moment Naruto told him that kiss had been one big mistake, just a drunken misunderstanding.

"Thanks for watching him, Sasuke! I owe you one!"

"No problem," he replied, trying not to drown in the past.

"Did you have fun, Aonori?" Naruto asked, his son still held easily on the edge of his hip. He didn't seem as tired as he had when he left, somehow. The mission must have gone well.

"Yeah! Yeah! Sasuke took me to get mochi!"

"Really? You must have been happy," Naruto teased. Nori nodded seriously. Sasuke was still glad he'd finally been given the secret to Nori's affection: some rice covered ice cream. If only it was that easy to win over everyone who didn't like him—not that he really cared about anyone else liking him.

"Yeah!" Nori continued, his small hands holding onto Naruto's jacket to keep his balance as he spoke up to his father's face. "And he didn't eat his because he doesn't like seets so I got to eat two mochis!"

Naruto laughed, shaking his head. His good mood was infectious.

"Two mochis?" he said, laughing, "just wait until your Mom hears that you—"

Sasuke felt his heartbeat stop.

All of the air had been transported from the room leaving nothing but a choking vacuum in it's place. Sasuke's eyes found Naruto, frozen with his son on his hip, eyes wide and mouth half-open with the unfinished words he'd spoken.

"Naruto—" Sasuke started, hurting as if Naruto's pain were his own.

"Dad?" Nori asked in that birdsong-soft voice, tilting his head curiously. "Hey Dad, when is Mom coming back, anyway?"

Things are always worse than they seem, aren't they? Hopefully the next chapter will come sooner I've just been really busy!